The Browns season was marred with injuries, illness and illogical decisions

The Browns are out of the playoff race officially

The Browns have been eliminated from the playoffs. The Browns needed so much to go right and it nearly did. The day started off so well with the Ravens losing to the Rams and the Bengals falling behind to the Chiefs. Yet, the Chiefs couldn’t hold on and ultimately lost to the Bengals. That didn’t drown the Browns, however, they still had hoped after the Dolphins lost and all the Browns needed to keep their playoff hopes alive is a Denver win.

Clearly, that didn’t happen.

The Browns‘ next two games don’t matter much beyond pride and dignity and if they wanted to shut down Baker Mayfield now so that he could go get shoulder surgery that he obviously needs, then that wouldn’t upset too many people.

So what happened to the season? It may seem easy to blame Mayfield or Kevin Stefanski but that’s outright lazy at best and dishonest at worst. The fact is, a lot of things went wrong this year. Sometimes that just happens. There’ll be a lot of fans who will agree with that statement.

Then there will be some who are just too angry to talk to. So we won’t.

The Browns were done in by three obvious issues.

Clearly, injuries played a part. Mayfield hasn’t looked like himself all year. His shoulder injury affected his ability to play. A lot of people with vendetta’s or a need to be right will often minimize the injury but it’s been affecting his throwing motion since it happened. His injury wasn’t the only team killer, as the injuries, Jack Conklin dealt with all season didn’t help matters one bit. The team went off his hip on most of their running plays, be it inside or outside of him, and without him the team was far from the beast at running the ball they once were. You also had various games where Kareem Hunt, Nick Chubb, Jarvis Landry, Jadeveon Clowney, and others were on the shelf. None of those were helpful.

Then there was the Covid of it all. Save for the Rams, there was no team that dealt with Covid far more often it felt like than the Browns. It sunk them in at least two if not three games this season. Despite what some will try and tell you, no, replacing Pro Bowl-caliber talent with practice squad guys isn’t “the same thing” and you can’t just demand they “step up”. If they were capable of it, they most likely wouldn’t be on the practice squad.

Lastly, the many, many boneheaded decisions, dating back to the offseason. Their refusal to move on from Odell Beckham earlier and not move him for a draft pick or a player who can help will remain a huge sticking point for many. Stefanski’s play-calling wasn’t great, and Andrew Berry’s being content to roll with guys like Donovan Peoples-Jones and Demetric Felton heading into the season and again at the trade deadline will represent some serious missed opportunities.

Luckily this team isn’t far removed from being good and a winning season is still possible. A healthy Mayfield, some new targets, and a better interior of the defense will see this team right back in the thick of things.